Samsung Z1, the First Commercially Available Tizen Smartphone, Has Launched in India

Tizen operating system is already found in cameras, and smartwatches, with works also being done for televisions, laptops and cars, but the Tizen smartphone has been mostly newsworthy because of product cancellations or delays, rather than product launches. But finally, the first Tizen smartphone has been introduced in India, it’s called Samsung Z1 and sells for 5,700 Indian Rupees ($92).

We asked Samsung just how many apps are available for Tizen, but the company declined to reveal a figure. Samsung did, however, confirm that reports suggesting that the Z1 could use Android apps were incorrect.

“Both Android and iOS apps must have their codes re-written to run on Tizen devices,” a spokesperson said.

So it’s quite possible only a subset of Android app will run on Tizen, or if the phone did not include an Application Compatibility Layer (ACL), the apps would have to be ported to Tizen. Wait and see.